Vanessa Silberman is the Senior Director of Communications & Strategic Initiatives at the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, a national creative placemaking funder that empowers communities to come together and transform underused outdoor spaces into welcoming destinations through the power of free, live music. In 2019, more than 550 free Levitt concerts are being presented in 26 towns and cities across America, serving more than 750,000 people.

An award-winning content strategist and creative activist, Vanessa joined the Levitt Foundation in 2012, uniting her lifelong passions for live music, storytelling and social impact. In this role, she has built a vast portfolio to share the inspiring impact of the Levitt Foundation, its nonprofit partners and grantees, and the field of creative placemaking at large. She also spearheads new initiatives that support the strategic growth of Levitt programs nationwide and played a leading role in the development of the Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards. Vanessa has been an invited speaker at a variety of national conferences including Main Street Now, City Nation Place, National Forum on Family Philanthropy, Grantmakers in the Arts, ComNet, and the National Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit. She is a member of Southern California Grantmaker’s Senior Peer-to-Peer Network and also served as executive co-producer of the 2019 National Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit | Pacific in Los Angeles. Previous roles include Editorial Director at Art Center College of Design; Arts Specialist at the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs (Bloomberg administration); and various communications roles with MoMA, The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Research Center for Arts & Culture. A graduate of Swarthmore College, Vanessa earned a master’s degree in Arts Administration from Columbia University.